As I write this, I know that I have not posted here in a looong time! Many things have been going on around The Holland House since mid August, Jake started school, SHSU classes began and the College Ministry is back in full swing, TRUTH on Tuesday’s…. and then a couple of hurricanes impacted our area. The last one, Ike, came right up through my hometown and the coastal town that I have spent many years going to. There has been much suffering going at many different levels for a large population. Suffering is relative of course and depending on the circumstances we can all suffer and think that it is greater than what anyone else is going through.
The question that I have been pondering the last few weeks is why do we suffer, why is it allowed, does God allow suffering in our lives for a reason? I ran across an article about suffering with some very good things to remember as you are in the midst of it.
Five R’s to illustrate the macro purposes of God in our sufferings include:
Repentance
Suffering is a call for us and others to turn from treasuring anything on earth above God.
Luke 13:4-5 – Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.
Reliance
Suffering is a call to trust God not the life-sustaining props of the world.
2 Corinthians 1:8-9 – For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead.
Righteousness
Suffering is the discipline of our loving heavenly Father so that we come to share his holiness.
Hebrews 12:6, 10-11 – The Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives…. He disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.
Reward
Suffering is working for us a great reward in heaven that will make up for every loss here a thousand-fold.
2 Corinthians 4:17 – This light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison.
Matthew 5:11-12 – Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven.
Reminder
Suffering reminds us that God sent his Son into the world to suffer so that our suffering would not be God’s condemnation but his purification.
Philippians 3:10 – …that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings.
Mark 10:45 – The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.
So, as a wrap up, are we suffering as a call for us and others to turn from treasuring anything on earth above God? Are we suffering as a call to trust God and not the life-sustaining props of the world? Are we suffering as we allow the discipline of our loving heavenly Father so that we come to share his holiness? Are we suffering as He is working for us a great reward in heaven that will make up for every loss here a thousand-fold? Are we suffering to be reminded that God sent his Son into the world to suffer so that our suffering would not be God’s condemnation but his purification?
Let me know how God has revealed Himself to you through suffering in your life!
ken
